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Women’s access to justice 2015, para. 65d
- Paragraph text
- [Many countries have made reservations to:] Article 16, which indicates that States parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in all matters relating to marriage and family relations.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Women’s access to justice 2015, para. 62
- Paragraph text
- The presence of plural justice systems can, in itself, limit women's access to justice by perpetuating and reinforcing discriminatory social norms. In many contexts, the availability of multiple avenues for gaining access to justice within plural justice systems notwithstanding, women are unable to effectively exercise a choice of forum. The Committee has observed that, in some States parties in which systems of family and/or personal law based on customs, religion or community norms coexist alongside civil law systems, individual women may not be as familiar with both systems or at liberty to decide which regime applies to them.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Women’s access to justice 2015, para. 57
- Paragraph text
- Many jurisdictions have adopted mandatory or optional systems for mediation, conciliation, arbitration and collaborative resolutions of disputes, as well as for facilitation and interest-based negotiations. This applies, in particular, in the areas of family law, domestic violence, juvenile justice and labour law. Alternative dispute resolution processes are sometimes referred to as informal justice, which are linked to, but function outside of, formal court litigation processes. Informal alternative dispute resolution processes also include non-formal indigenous courts and chieftancy-based alternative dispute resolution, where chiefs and other community leaders resolve interpersonal disputes, including divorce, child custody and land disputes. While such processes may provide greater flexibility and reduce costs and delays for women seeking justice, they may also lead to further violations of their rights and impunity for perpetrators because they often operate on the basis of patriarchal values, thereby having a negative impact on women's access to judicial review and remedies.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Women’s access to justice 2015, para. 46c
- Paragraph text
- [The Committee recommends that States parties:] In settings in which there is no unified family code and in which there exist multiple family law systems, such as civil, indigenous, religious and customary law systems, ensure that personal status laws provide for individual choice as to the applicable family law at any stage of the relationship. State courts should review the decisions taken by all other bodies in that regard.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Women’s access to justice 2015, para. 46b
- Paragraph text
- [The Committee recommends that States parties:] Consider the creation, within the same institutional framework, of gender-sensitive family judicial or quasi-judicial mechanisms to deal with issues such as property settlement, land rights, inheritance, dissolution of marriage and child custody; and
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Women’s access to justice 2015, para. 46a
- Paragraph text
- [The Committee recommends that States parties:] Adopt written family codes or personal status laws that provide for equal access to justice between spouses or partners irrespective of their religious or ethnic identity or community, in accordance with the Convention and the Committee's general recommendations;
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Women’s access to justice 2015, para. 45
- Paragraph text
- Inequality in the family underlies all other aspects of discrimination against women and is often justified in the name of ideology, tradition and culture. The Committee has repeatedly emphasized that family laws and the mechanisms of their application must comply with the principle of equality enshrined in articles 2, 15 and 16 of the Convention.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Women’s access to justice 2015, para. 44a
- Paragraph text
- [The Committee recommends that States parties:] Eliminate all gender-based barriers to access to civil law procedures, such as requiring that women obtain permission from judicial or administrative authorities or family members before beginning legal action, or that they furnish documents relating to identity or title to property;
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Women’s access to justice 2015, para. 42a
- Paragraph text
- [The Committee recommends that States parties:] Provide explicit constitutional protection for formal and substantive equality and for non-discrimination in the public and private spheres, including with regard to all matters of personal status, family, marriage and inheritance law, and across all areas of law;
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Women’s access to justice 2015, para. 40
- Paragraph text
- Given the diversity of institutions and judicial arrangements around the world, some elements placed under one field of law in one country may be placed elsewhere in another. For example, the definition of discrimination may or may not be included in the Constitution; protection orders may appear under family law and/or under criminal law; and asylum and refugee issues may be dealt with by administrative courts or by quasi-judicial bodies. States parties are asked to consider the paragraphs below in that light.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Women’s access to justice 2015, para. 37e
- Paragraph text
- [The Committee recommends that States parties:] In cases of family conflict or when a woman lacks equal access to family income, the use of means testing to determine eligibility for legal aid and public defence services should be based on the real income or disposable assets of the woman.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Women’s access to justice 2015, para. 29b
- Paragraph text
- [The Committee recommends that States parties:] Include other professionals, in particular health-care providers and social workers, who potentially play an important role in cases of violence against women and in family matters, in the awareness-raising and capacity-building programmes;
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Health
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Women’s access to justice 2015, para. 25c
- Paragraph text
- [The Committee recommends that States parties:] Take measures to avoid the marginalization of girls owing to conflicts and disempowerment within their families and the resulting lack of support for their rights, and abolish rules and practices that require parental or spousal authorization for access to services such as education and health, including sexual and reproductive health, as well as to legal services and justice systems;
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Women’s access to justice 2015, para. 25a (i)
- Paragraph text
- [The Committee recommends that States parties:] [Ensure that the principle of equality before the law is given effect by taking steps to abolish any existing laws, procedures, regulations, jurisprudence, customs and practices that directly or indirectly discriminate against women, especially with regard to their access to justice, and to abolish discriminatory barriers to access to justice, including:] The obligation or need for women to seek permission from family or community members before beginning legal action;
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Women’s access to justice 2015, para. 17f
- Paragraph text
- [With regard to accessibility of justice systems, the Committee recommends that States parties:] Establish justice access centres, such as "one-stop centres", which include a range of legal and social services, in order to reduce the number of steps that a woman has to take to gain access to justice. Such centres could provide legal advice and aid, begin the legal proceedings and coordinate support services for women in areas such as violence against women, family matters, health, social security, employment, property and immigration. Such centres must be accessible to all women, including those living in poverty and/or in rural and remote areas;
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Women migrant workers 2008, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- States parties are encouraged to ratify all international instruments relevant to the protection of the human rights of migrant women workers, in particular, the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2008
Paragraph
Women migrant workers 2008, para. 26e
- Paragraph text
- [States parties in countries where migrant women work should take all appropriate measures to ensure non-discrimination and the equal rights of women migrant workers, including in their own communities. Measures that may be required include, but are not limited to, the following:] Non-discriminatory family reunification schemes: States parties should ensure that family reunification schemes for migrant workers are not directly or indirectly discriminatory on the basis of sex (article 2 (f));
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2008
Paragraph
Women migrant workers 2008, para. 20
- Paragraph text
- Women migrant workers are more vulnerable to sexual abuse, sexual harassment and physical violence, especially in sectors where women predominate. Domestic workers are particularly vulnerable to physical and sexual assault, food and sleep deprivation and cruelty by their employers. Sexual harassment of women migrant workers in other work environments, such as on farms or in the industrial sector, is a problem worldwide (see E/CN.4/1998/74/Add.1). Women migrant workers who migrate as spouses of male migrant workers or along with family members face an added risk of domestic violence from their spouses or relatives if they come from a culture that values the submissive role of the women in the family.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Movement
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2008
Paragraph
Women migrant workers 2008, para. 16
- Paragraph text
- Women migrant workers may be unable to save or transmit savings safely through regular channels due to isolation (for domestic workers), cumbersome procedures, language barriers, or high transaction costs. This is a great problem since in general they earn less than men. Women may further face familial obligations to remit all their earnings to their families to a degree that may not be expected of men. For example, single women may be expected to support even extended family members at home.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Gender
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Men
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2008
Paragraph
Women migrant workers 2008, para. 11
- Paragraph text
- Women migrant workers may face sex- and gender-based discrimination, including compulsory HIV and AIDS testing for women returnees, moral "rehabilitation" for young women returnees and increased personal and social costs compared to men, without adequate gender-responsive services. For example, men may return to a stable family situation, whereas women may find disintegration of the family upon their return, with their absence from home regarded as the cause of such disintegration. There may also be a lack of protection against reprisals from exploitative recruiting agents.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Men
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Youth
- Year
- 2008
Paragraph
Women migrant workers 2008, para. 2
- Paragraph text
- This general recommendation intends to contribute to the fulfilment of the obligations of States parties to respect, protect and fulfil the human rights of women migrant workers, alongside the legal obligations contained in other treaties, the commitments made under the plans of action of world conferences and the important work of migration-focused treaty bodies, especially the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families. While the Committee notes that the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families protects individuals, including migrant women, on the basis of their migration status, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women protects all women, including migrant women, against sex- and gender-based discrimination. While migration presents new opportunities for women and may be a means for their economic empowerment through wider participation, it may also place their human rights and security at risk. Hence, this general recommendation aims to elaborate the circumstances that contribute to the specific vulnerability of many women migrant workers and their experiences of sex- and gender-based discrimination as a cause and consequence of the violations of their human rights.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Movement
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2008
Paragraph
Women in conflict prevention, conflict and post-conflict situations 2013, para. 81k
- Paragraph text
- [The Committee recommends that States parties:] Enhance women's access to justice, including through the provision of legal aid and the establishment of specialized courts, such as domestic violence and family courts, providing mobile courts for camps and settlement settings and for remote areas, and ensure adequate protection measures for victims and witnesses, including non-disclosure of identity and the provision of shelters;
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Humanitarian
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Women in conflict prevention, conflict and post-conflict situations 2013, para. 63
- Paragraph text
- Equal access to property, as guaranteed by article 16 (1)(h), is particularly critical in post-conflict situations, given that housing and land are crucial to recovery efforts, in particular for women in female-headed households, the number of whom tends to rise in crisis owing to family separation and widowhood. Women's limited and unequal access to property becomes particularly damaging in post-conflict situations, especially when displaced women who have lost husbands or close male relatives return to their homes to find that they have no legal title to their land and, as a result, no means of earning a livelihood.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Persons on the move
- Women
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Women in conflict prevention, conflict and post-conflict situations 2013, para. 62
- Paragraph text
- Inequalities in marriage and family relations affect women's experiences in conflict and post-conflict situations. In such situations, women and girls may be forced into marriage to placate armed groups or because their post-conflict poverty forces them to marry for financial security, affecting their rights to choose a spouse and enter freely into marriage, as guaranteed by article 16 (1)(a) and 16 (1)(b). During conflict, girls are particularly susceptible to forced marriage, a harmful practice that is increasingly used by armed groups. Families also force girls into marriage as a result of poverty and a misconception that it may protect them against rape.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Humanitarian
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Women and health 1999, para. 28
- Paragraph text
- When reporting on measures taken to comply with article 12, States parties are urged to recognize its interconnection with other articles in the Convention that have a bearing on women's health. Those articles include article 5 (b), which requires States parties to ensure that family education includes a proper understanding of maternity as a social function; article 10, which requires States parties to ensure equal access to education, thus enabling women to access health care more readily and reducing female student drop-out rates, which are often a result of premature pregnancy; article 10 (h), which requires that States parties provide to women and girls access to specific educational information to help ensure the health and well-being of families, including information and advice on family planning; article 11, which is concerned, in part, with the protection of women's health and safety in working conditions, including the safeguarding of the reproductive function, special protection from harmful types of work during pregnancy and with the provision of paid maternity leave; article 14, paragraph 2 (b), which requires States parties to ensure access for rural women to adequate health-care facilities, including information, counselling and services in family planning, and (h), which obliges States parties to take all appropriate measures to ensure adequate living conditions, particularly housing, sanitation, electricity and water supply, transport and communications, all of which are critical for the prevention of disease and the promotion of good health care; and article 16, paragraph 1 (e), which requires States parties to ensure that women have the same rights as men to decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of their children and to have access to the information, education and means to enable them to exercise those rights. Article 16, paragraph 2, proscribes the betrothal and marriage of children, an important factor in preventing the physical and emotional harm which arise from early childbirth.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Girls
- Women
- Year
- 1999
Paragraph
Women and health 1999, para. 17
- Paragraph text
- The duty to fulfil rights places an obligation on States parties to take appropriate legislative, judicial, administrative, budgetary, economic and other measures to the maximum extent of their available resources to ensure that women realize their rights to health care. Studies such as those that emphasize the high maternal mortality and morbidity rates worldwide and the large numbers of couples who would like to limit their family size but lack access to or do not use any form of contraception provide an important indication for States parties of possible breaches of their duties to ensure women's access to health care. The Committee asks States parties to report on what they have done to address the magnitude of women's ill-health, in particular when it arises from preventable conditions, such as tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. The Committee is concerned about the evidence that States are relinquishing these obligations as they transfer State health functions to private agencies. States and parties cannot absolve themselves of responsibility in these areas by delegating or transferring these powers to private sector agencies. States parties should therefore report on what they have done to organize governmental processes and all structures through which public power is exercised to promote and protect women's health. They should include information on positive measures taken to curb violations of women's rights by third parties and to protect their health and the measures they have taken to ensure the provision of such services.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 1999
Paragraph
Women and health 1999, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- The obligation to respect rights requires States parties to refrain from obstructing action taken by women in pursuit of their health goals. States parties should report on how public and private health-care providers meet their duties to respect women's rights to have access to health care. For example, States parties should not restrict women's access to health services or to the clinics that provide those services on the ground that women do not have the authorization of husbands, partners, parents or health authorities, because they are unmarried or because they are women. Other barriers to women's access to appropriate health care include laws that criminalize medical procedures only needed by women punish women who undergo those procedures.
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 1999
Paragraph
Violence against women 1992, para. 24t (i)
- Paragraph text
- [In light of these comments, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women recommends:] That States parties should take all legal and other measures that are necessary to provide effective protection of women against gender-based violence, including, inter alia: Effective legal measures, including penal sanctions, civil remedies compensatory provisions to protect women against all kinds of violence, including, inter alia, violence and abuse in the family, sexual assault and sexual harassment in the workplace;
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 1992
Paragraph
Violence against women 1992, para. 24r (v)
- Paragraph text
- [In light of these comments, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women recommends:] Measures that are necessary to overcome family violence should include: Support services for families where incest or sexual abuse has occurred;
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 1992
Paragraph
Violence against women 1992, para. 24r (iv)
- Paragraph text
- [In light of these comments, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women recommends:] Measures that are necessary to overcome family violence should include: Rehabilitation programmes for perpetrators of domestic violence;
- Body
- Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
- Document type
- General Comment / Recommendation
- Topic(s)
- Gender
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- Families
- Women
- Year
- 1992
Paragraph